Organization in an Elementary Engineering Classroom

As I scrolled through Twitter this morning, I came across a great post on Engineering is Elementary (EIE) blog @EIE_org. There were some great tips and it reminded me of the routines and practices I have established in the elementary engineering lab at my school to manage the 22 classes, 572 students in kindergarten through 5th grade, I see on a weekly basis. Of course storage is always an issue, whether it's storing materials or storing projects. I had tried using student engineering notebooks off and on. I made a commitment to make it work three years ago. However, storing 572 student notebooks would use a lot of my existing storage space that I was not willing to surrender. Instead of using composition notebooks, I choose to use file folders. File folders make it easier to insert full page handouts and I don't use any storage space storing unused pages. I write the name of each student on their folder and color code grade levels. Each grade level has its own color. That way if a folder gets misplaced, I can at least identify the grade level it belongs to and then identify the class. In addition, students are allowed to decorate their folder covers as they have time.

In this photo, you can see how the covers of the folders have evolved.

In the inside front of each notebook, students in 3rd through 5th grade staple group roles. Inside the back of the folder, each previous year's work is stapled at the end of the year. If students are in 5th grade, that year's work is not stapled because they will be taking their folders with them at the end of the year. Stapling the previous year's work makes it easier for students to manage the loose file folder system.

Sometimes it is necessary to staple items back in, but not very often.

I have a heavy duty thick stapler for stapling previous year's work.

If a folder gets dropped, there are many fewer papers to reorganize. Our school has a maximum of 32 students in 4th and 5th. Those classes take up a little more room. As students folder fill up over the years, the folders are able to expand and hold the materials.

I lay out the folders at the beginning of class on the front counter of my room for all grades except kindergarten.  For kindergarten, I handout the folders once the students start building their projects. This gives me practice with their names and the cabinet is a little high for them to find their names. I have a basket at the back of my room that students stack their folders in at the end of class. This keeps them nice and neat until I can put them away.

Folders are on the cabinet to the right of the picture.

The folders are also a great way for me to take attendance. I use claim, evidence, and reasoning writing in some form with all my classes.  The engineering notebooks are a great place to house those pieces of writing, as well as, handouts for particular projects, rubrics, and other resources that may be relevant to a lesson. It is really nice to be able to use full size pages rather than having to resize for composition notebooks.Storage is also very easy. I just use on 4-drawer filing cabinet to store all the student notebooks.